Healthful choices depend on the latency and rate of information accumulation

The drift diffusion model (DDM) provides a parsimonious explanation of decisions across neurobiological, psychological, and behavioral levels of analysis. Although most DDM implementations assume that only a single value guides decisions, choices often involve multiple attributes that could make separable contributions to choice. Here, we fit incentive-compatible dietary choices to a multi-attribute, time-dependent drift diffusion model (mtDDM), in which taste and health could differentially influence the evidence accumulation process. We found that these attributes shaped both the relative value signal and the latency of evidence accumulation in a manner consistent with participants’ idiosyncratic preferences. Moreover, by using a dietary prime, we showed how a healthy choice intervention alters mtDDM parameters that in turn predict prime-dependent choices. Our results reveal that different decision attributes make separable contributions to the strength and timing of evidence accumulation – providing new insights into the construction of interventions to alter the processes of choice.